p.

Letter No 53

Friday-June 20th

Major J.H. Massey
6 Palestinian Coy, The Buffs
Middle East Force

My dearest darling Barbara-

Your 30th letter of March 1st; by sea mail; arrived today &
with it one of your hankies, which you had carried went to
your has for me, & which you had put some of your scent
on for me, & which you had kissed for me. Thank you
very much sweetheart it is wonderful & perhaps you
can imagine what it has done to me, loving you
so much, & missing you so acutely, & being so very
sentimental about you. I almost swooned away from nostalgia
& longing And you said in your letter that I might have
forgotten. Dearie darling, surely you know by now that I
am an elephant? In any case I wrote you in my last
letter that I was still working - & so I hope you will
send me some more because by that time with my [hot?]
nose & mouth, this one will be very faint or even entirely
gone away. This letter was a test of sea mail against no. 31
by air mail. We both know by now that there is no
comparison between the two, but as a matter of interest,
the results of the test are:-

no. 30 sent 1 March received 20 June. 3 months & 20 days
" [no.] 31. "[sent] 3 "[March] " [received] 21 April. 1 "[month] & 18 "[days]

So that is pretty conclusive, & I could kill myself for using
sea mail for those 3-4 weeks in Jan - Feb, & causing you so
much misery & worry.

Darling, these two letters both said that you had just had
my long 4th letter from the boat & the final one no. 5. And
that you had received the parcels. And you sent me a
cable to the same effect. And yet you never even said
thankyou for the parcels or told me a single word about

Letter No 53

Friday-June 20th

Major J.H. Massey
6 Palestinian Coy, The Buffs
Middle East Force

My dearest darling Barbara-

Your 30th letter of March 1st; by sea mail; arrived today &
with it one of your hankies, which you had carried went to
your has for me, & which you had put some of your scent
on for me, & which you had kissed for me. Thank you
very much sweetheart it is wonderful & perhaps you
can imagine what it has done to me, loving you
so much, & missing you so acutely, & being so very
sentimental about you. I almost swooned away from nostalgia
& longing And you said in your letter that I might have
forgotten. Dearie darling, surely you know by now that I
am an elephant? In any case I wrote you in my last
letter that I was still working - & so I hope you will
send me some more because by that time with my [hot?]
nose & mouth, this one will be very faint or even entirely
gone away. This letter was a test of sea mail against no. 31
by air mail. We both know by now that there is no
comparison between the two, but as a matter of interest,
the results of the test are:-

no. 30 sent 1 March received 20 June. 3 months & 20 days
" [no.] 31. "[sent] 3 "[March] " [received] 21 April. 1 "[month] & 18 "[days]

So that is pretty conclusive, & I could kill myself for using
sea mail for those 3-4 weeks in Jan - Feb, & causing you so
much misery & worry.

Darling, these two letters both said that you had just had
my long 4th letter from the boat & the final one no. 5. And
that you had received the parcels. And you sent me a
cable to the same effect. And yet you never even said
thankyou for the parcels or told me a single word about